Not What She Expected
by TheBookMouse
Summary: Annabeth has been stuck in a tower for four years, waiting for a prince to come and save her. What happens when she gets her wish... but it isn't exactly what she expected.
1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time in a far away land there was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle in the middle of the woods, locked up into the highest tower and guarded by a giant man-killing dragon. Her parents, the king and the queen of a land close by named Athens, had locked her up in this godforsaken tower and informed the damsel that she would be left there to be saved only by the most brave warrior that there was in the kingdom. So here Princess Annabeth stayed for four long, tiring years. Her only companion being her books and her imagination. As she watched from her small window, the knights and princes came streaming in, all trying to defeat the dragon and all trying to win the hand of the young princess. She thought and thought about which man would slay the dragon and save her from her own personal doom. Would it be the humble looking apprentice, desperately trying to prove himself as a knight? Or the princely man riding upon a large white horse?

As she stared at her rounded walls that were shaded a light pink, she dared to think that perhaps it would be none of these warriors. Maybe she would never be saved. Hopelessness was slowly approaching, like a large storm cloud on the horizon. The princess tried desperately to keep the hope that she had so willingly started out with. But she found herself not even caring anymore when the most handsome fellow went ambling through the narrow path that led to her castle.

One morning, seemingly the same as yesterday and the day before and probably tomorrow, she had been sitting on the small padded seat beside the window that looked out over the hills near her castle. A sparkle in the distance caught her attention, and she looked intently that way as it slowly grew larger. Not a sparkle, but a horseback rider donned in a full suit of armor sitting upon a horse that was blacker than midnight. She stood up and moved towards her reading chair, then picking up one of her favorite books to hopefully drown out the noises of a mans screeching wails as he fell dead due to the claws or the teeth of the massive dragon that guarded her prison. Sure enough, she soon heard a sound of woe, but it was not one of a human. Rather, a desperately whinnying horse. And then, the roar of the dragon. But it was different than how Annabeth had ever heard it before. More… scared than before. Then, the noise suddenly died down. It was instead replaced with the sound of a person coming up the stairs. And, honestly, the princess was surprised that she remembered the sound of that at all for how long she had been stuck in the same room, never leaving.

She rushed to pack up a bag of clothes and other essentials as if in a daze. How could this be happening to her? This day had seemed so unimportant. But, sure enough, a knock sounded at the door just as the princess had gotten the rest of what she would need and tossed it into the bag that had never before been touched.

"Come in!" she sounded nervously. What if the man decided that he wouldn't marry her after all? What if he thought that she wasn't good enough?

He walked in, and she could see not even an inch of his skin due to the large suit of armor adorning his body.

A sound came echoing out of the helmet, "Let's go. I don't want to take any chances of that dragon deciding to not be dead."

The stranger started walking without saying a single other word, not even waiting for Annabeth. She quickly caught up with her simple satchel placed high upon her shoulder. They remained silent for the time it took to get out of the castle. Annabeth, being the respectful princess she was, didn't say a word, determined to wait until the strange man had spoken first. Seemingly three hours later and still not a word had been spoken. Her attitude upon this silence went from impassive and slightly curious, to confused, to positively miffed at his stoic behavior.

Finally, once she couldn't stand it even one more second longer, she spoke. "So, what's your name?"

A grunt was given in response.

"Where are you from?"

Another noncommittal sound.

"Why did you come to my castle and rescue me?"

At this point, the man was just ignoring her.

"Fine, be like that. It's not like we'll be getting married or anything," Annabeth fumed, annoyed at his lack of manners. The man that she was to marry was supposed to be perfect. With a warm, welcoming atmosphere, ruggedly handsome looks, and a brain to allow intelligent conversation. It's not like she wanted much, just perfect.

She decided it was better to just be silent from then on, sulkily following the person who had rescued her. As the light began to fade, the two found a cave and the man started to build a fire while Annabeth opened her bag and looked through the contents. She had two dresses that were good for traveling, one that was evening wear, one to sleep in, some undergarments, a couple leather bags filled with food, and a warm blanket large enough for two.

The princess looked up to notice the fire had been started, and a makeshift mattress had been made out of pine needles and a ripped open canvas sack. "Thanks," she muttered.

"You're welcome," a high, clear voice rang out in response. By the light of the fire, Annabeth could make out the figure of her savior. He was taking off his helmet, when something unexpected happened. Long, brown hair flew out around the shoulders of the armor that put Annabeth's golden locks to shame. Beautiful kaleidoscope eyes framed with too-long eyelashes blinked up at her. And as her savior slowly rid themself of the rest of the armor, a dress fell down around their ankles.

An arrogant look found it's way onto the face of the beautiful girl standing in front of her. "What? Thought I'd look a little more… princely?"

"But y-you're a… girl?! I can't marry you!" Annabeth's words stumbled over themselves as she looked at the person before her in shock.

"Yes, I'm a girl. Although I prefer to be called Piper, rather than just 'girl'. And I never planned on taking your hand in marriage. Why should I? A girl should be allowed to find the man of her dreams on her own, not by being locked up in some stuffy castle," the girl, Piper, explained. A look of pride adorned her face.

"So then why did you come and save me?" Annabeth asked indignantly, finally finding her voice enough to be her normal self.

"I thought of myself, would I want to be locked up in a tower forever? No. So I came and saved you. I'll be taking you back to my kingdom first, since it is on the way to Athens. That is where you live, correct?" The strong-willed girl had not been phased in the slightest by anything Annabeth had said or done.

"Yes, it was," the princess spoke, cautious about the subject of her old land, as she had not lived there for so long.

"Hm, okay. What's your name anyway, princess?" Piper asked.

"Princess Annabeth, to you." She responded, head held high.

"Oh, that's a mouthful. I'll call you Annie, then," Piper decided.

How disrespectful! Annabeth had thought, but she hadn't dared to say it aloud, for she didn't want to start another fight with this stubborn mule of a girl. Why did this have to happen to her?

She ate some food before grabbing her blanket and laying down upon the makeshift bed. Sleep didn't catch up with her for a while, since her thoughts were running so wild.

**Soooo, continue or no? Also, sorry if Annabeth is too OC, I plan on changing that soon. Reviews are what keep me going, guys!**


	2. Chapter 2

Annabeth was woken up by a voice much too bright for this early in the morning. "Morning, sunshine! Let's get going."

"The sun's barely risen," She grumbled stuffily, opening her eyes a crack.

"Yes, and I want to get home as soon as possible. It's only about three days journey away from here," Piper spoke, bustling around their makeshift campsite.

Blinking the sleep from her eyes, the princess got up and went to a nearby stream to wash up and then change into something more sensible for traveling. She returned to a cave that looked exactly as it had before they had arrived.

"I did a nice job, right?" Piper boasted, her tone not even asking for reassurance, just knowing that she did well.

Annabeth nodded absentmindedly.

"This is one of the last places where there will be safety, the rest of the way there is riddled with dangers. You'll see, it's fun!" The brunette bubbled, getting into a lighter set of armor for going through the upcoming tough terrain. "It really is horrible that we lost Midnight."

"What?" Annie questioned.

"Midnight, my horse. Your stupid dragon killed him," Piper's face was sad for a split second before brightening. "But it's okay, I have others."

"Oh, alright," the blonde spoke, not really getting into the conversation.

They traveled, like the other day, in quiet for some time.

Annie looked at her surroundings as they changed from a normal forest to darker and more mysterious. The little that the two girls did talk was quiet, whispered as not to disturb any of the creatures in the forest.

"You never travel the same trail through this forest twice," Piper whispers. "The forest is just as alive, dangerous, and magical as it's inhabitants."

"That's not at all reassuring!" Annie hisses, already getting paranoid by every little noise that she heard.

Finally, as dark was beginning to arrive, they searched for a good spot to sleep for the night. They found a rock with an inward curve, not exactly a cave, but covered up with enough vines to protect them. Piper grabbed a few sticks to make a very small fire and began to light it as Annabeth took out a couple apples. Just as a spark lit up the wood and started to burn it, a roar ripped through the woods and the rock started to move. Both girls clung to a nearby hanging root desperately as they were picked up.

"Who burnt my foot?!" was the roar heard from above the two girls.

"It's an ogre," Piper whispers quietly. "Hold on tightly, we just need to wait this out and he will forget that anything ever happened. Ogres have horrible memory."

But then, a large stony hand reached down and found the two girls who had been hanging off of him.

"Oh! A midnight snack!" he exclaimed in a voice that was so stupid sounding that it would have been funny under different circumstances.

"No, sir, we are not food! Merely travelers passing through this forest," Piper spoke again, looking at Annie for help. Annie, however, was silently panicking.

"You look plenty good to eat to me," the ogre said, lifting them above his mouth.

"You wouldn't want to eat us unseasoned, would you? Just let us gather some herbs, and we'll be right back for you to eat. We'll taste even better," Piper pleaded desperately, but you would never realize, for her face had not changed at all from it's usual confident smirk.

"Well… if you would taste better… but I _am_ really hungry," the ogre pondered. "Fine, but be quick! I want to eat!"

"Oh, we'll be quick all right," Piper muttered under her breath, dragging Annie along by the hand. Once a safe distance away, the two girls broke into a sprint. They found a smaller cave, and set up without a fire, with hopes of actually getting to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Early in the morning, Annabeth was woken up again. This time, however, it was quietly. A hand was placed over her mouth just as she saw exactly why Piper was so quiet. It was a small creature, looked slightly like a salamander, but it was snorting smoke. It seemed to be asleep, in the little corner of the cave, so neither girl was anxious to wake it as they quickly grabbed their things and left.

They journeyed till the sun was high in the sky, at which point they rested near a small pond. Gazing into the water, Annabeth grabbed a small handful to splash against her face. When she looked back down at the pond, a scream ripped it's way out of her throat. Someone was looking back at her! A girl, with greenish skin, dark hair, and almost amphibic features. She quickly stumbled away from the water and stared as the girl stood up. Where was Piper? Annie had no idea how to face this creature! Did it have good intentions, or bad intentions?

The frog-like hands were clutching what seemed to be a small flute. She raised it to her green tinted lips and started to play a melody. Annabeth suddenly found herself wanting to know this person, as the creature morphed from a green monster into a normal girl, with the acceptance of her slit-like ears and the bottom of her skirt being wet and dripping, even though the rest of her was perfectly dry. Annabeth walked towards her, and the creature held out her hand.

Just as her small hand slipped into the creatures hand, it went back to it's original form and flipped backwards into the water, dragging Annabeth with her. Just at that moment, Piper walked into the clearing. "Annie? Where are you?" Then her eyes glimpsed the foot of the slimy creature. "Nixies. It just had to be Nixies." Then she threw off her armor and put down her bag before jumping in fully clothed.

Opening her eyes underwater, she looked around for a struggle. It had just just occurred to Piper that perhaps there were more than one when a hand clasped her ankle and tugged her deeper towards the bottom. It was then that Piper caught sight of the other girl. She was floating peacefully beside another one of the tricky creatures. Looking behind herself, she saw that her own monster was more blue than the other. Smirking to herself, she pretended to have fallen under the mysterious spell. While the beasts could swim underwater, their alluring song did not go through the liquid as easily as it could through air.

The Nixie let go of her and smirked successfully at her supposed victory over the silly little mortal. Then, suddenly, Piper kicked hard at the things gills. Enough to make it sputter and then slam into a rock before going limp. Reaching the surface, she gasped sweet, fresh air before going back under to save Annie. The Nixie who had dragged her under was still holding her hand, knowing that in order for the spell to keep going underwater, she would have to keep in contact with the victim whose ears had already heard the treacherous song. Using the element of surprise, Piper grabbed a reasonably sized rock and hit it against the back of the Nixies head. Crumpling to the pond floor, the Nixie's eyes rolled back in it's head. Piper quickly grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her to the surface. She wasted no time in letting her become undazed before dragging her to the clearing, farther away from the pond.

"Wha-?" Annie murmured, dazed.

"Nixies. I leave you alone for all of a couple minutes and you stumble into trouble immediately," Piper explained exasperated. "You're helpless, princess. I understand why they threw you into a tower and locked the door. You need a prince to survive." And with that said, she grabbed her bags and armor, tossing them on and starting to walk again.

Annabeth scrambled to her feet and shoved her bag onto her shoulder before following the other girl resignedly. Yet again, they fell into a silence. But this one was much more strained. Annie was upset at being called helpless, and Piper wasn't so happy about the other girl being so useless and getting them into trouble.

They silently made camp, thankfully this time not on an ogre, but a deep cave. How deep they did not know because they stayed at the entrance. Sleep came easily to both, the day had exhausted them to their limits.


	4. Chapter 4

Waking up, Annabeth noticed something very wrong. She was well rested, and hadn't been wakened at dawn for once. She tried to stand up, but failed, as she found herself tied to a roughly made chair.

"Don't even try, I already have. It took you long enough to wake up, princess. Thought I'd let you sleep in for once. Do you want to know the details of the situation?" Piper spoke, resentment in her voice at wherever they were.

And Annie could understand that, looking around. There was all sorts of things scattered about. Skulls of all types of creatures, pigs, mice, humans, and all manner of weird, misshapen things that must have been other creatures that resided in this forest hung upon the walls. Dirt and other things that should not be explained adorned the floor in messy piles.

"Sure, I don't think I'll like what I hear, though," Annie responded timidly.

"We stumbled into a goblins cave by mistake. They decided, 'hey, what better way to spend some time than to kidnap some people?' So now we're stuck here. They couldn't find anything valuable on us, so they decided eating us would suffice." She explained with false cheeriness.

"We're going to die!" Annabeth sobbed.

"Shh, I hear someone coming," Piper responded, urging the other to be quiet.

Three creepy little creatures walked into the room on squatty feet, making little grunting noises to each other. They were each about three feet tall, with snarly features and greenish brown, leathery skin. Once close enough so that the girls could smell their vile breath, they spoke.

"Our leader says you can choose, death or fight," the largest of the three spoke in a gravelly tone that was barely English at all.

"Fight," Piper spoke with indignation and false confidence.

The goblins then turn to Annabeth with a look on their face that seemed to say that it was her turn to speak.

"I-I'll fight," she stuttered nervously.

All three goblins started hooting with excitement and scurried out of the room.

"We really are going to die!" Annie wailed again.

"No, we won't. Don't you know their weakness?" Piper demanded, keeping a cool head.

"No, why would I? I was locked up in a tower for goodness sake!" She exclaimed, still hopeless.

"They're horribly short, with squatty feet. One strong kick and they go rolling. The disadvantage, usually they come in large groups. I'm not sure how large this particular group is, but let's hope it isn't too big. Then we really are dead." Piper explained, helping her to strategize.

They spent the next few hours talking over what they would do, until finally they were collected by the same three goblins and carted to another cave. This one was round, with a second row that had obviously been put in. Around thirty goblins sat on it, hooting and generally being excited for what was about to take place.

Each girl was handed a small, rough knife and their own bags.

Standing in the middle of the room were four of the nasty little monsters, awaiting the girls. Reaching into her bag, Piper grabbed a measure of rope and a container of salt. Tossing one end of the rope to Annabeth, They circled around the goblins uncertainly. An odd sounding horn was blown, and the goblins rushed at their prey. Before one could sink it's teeth into Annie's leg, a sprinkling of salt was set across it's eyes, and it was blinded. Sinking the end of her knife into it's neck, Annabeth killed the gross thing. The rest of the salt was thrown similarly into the other creature's eyes, and the rope wrapped around their small feet. Dizzy and blind, they now stumbled around swinging their own little knives but not getting anything. Quickly they were finished off by the two girls. A single outraged cry lifted up from all of the goblins at the same time and the girls started running out.

"Come on!" Piper cried as Annie tripped over something in the semi darkness of the half lit cave. They got out and ran as far as they could until the sounds of the goblins cry could no longer be heard.

"And that's what they get for having short, squatty legs," Piper laughed out as they collapsed on a log.

"We're not dead!" Annie exclaimed, happiness showing through her voice.

"And, even better, I can see my kingdom from here. Look!" Piper said, climbing on top of the fallen tree.

Annie climbed up as well, looking at civilization again with a sinking feeling forming in her gut. That would mean she would have to go back to her parents. The adventure would end, and she might even be sent back to that awful castle.

"Oh… That's simply wonderful," Annie said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"I know!" Piper bubbled, not picking up on her sad friend. "We'll leave in the morn'."

"Alright," Annabeth agreed.

They set up camp near the log, in the middle of the clearing. Sleep didn't arrive as quickly for Annie as it did for Piper.


	5. Chapter 5

What woke up the two travelers was a slight tickling feeling. It dwelled on their noses and exposed skin. Eyes opened quickly, afraid that it was yet another horrible creature to deal with.

But, instead, they were greeted by the most beautiful thing imaginable. There were small fairy-like creatures surrounding them. Their wings glowed soft colors, and they had simple little dresses made of leaves and other natural materials. They all giggled and scattered once they noticed that the two girls were awake.

"They're… beautiful," Annie whispered, amazed.

"I've never seen anything like them before," Piper spoke in the same awed voice.

They reached out to touch the simple creatures, but in the process scared away the poor sprites.

"That was certainly a nice way to start the day," Annie said in a light tone.

"Agreed. Let's get going now, though. We don't want to waste a minute," the other girl suggested.

Nodding in assent, Annabeth got her stuff together.

They made the journey to the kingdom without incident, arriving at their destination. Once at Piper's house, they sat down and got to finally relax without the worry of being attacked.

"So, we'll go to your kingdom after a few days rest?" Piper asked gently.

"No," she responded.

"What? Wasn't that the whole point of this?" Piper asked confused.

"It was, but then you talked so much about being independent and deciding my own destiny. So that's exactly what I want to do. I'm tired of my parents telling me how to live my life, heck I wasted four years of it because of them. I'm going to stay, and maybe start working, and live my own life for the first time in, well, my own life." Annie spoke confidently, and in that moment you could see the change that the three day journey had inspired in her. There was no longer a prissy princess who was doomed to be a housewife, no. There was an independent young lady. Oh, and by the way, They Lived Happily Ever After.

**The End**


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